Here's the latest installment of RPF Newsletter #9: poor Emilio Bertinato spent TEN YEARS on the RPF with zero pay, because he was not a citizen or greencard holder. Then he got offloaded. Sickening.

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Bertinato, Emilio -- from Italy. He was FB (Flag Bureaux) staff before he was RPFed way back in 1994. He got off the RPF program for a short time back then, and was sent on a mission to Canada which he somehow "messed up" so he got RPFed again. He was on the RPF for about 10 (ten) YEARS with several twins. Emilio had the longest RPF sentence I have heard of. Many times he was targeted and humiliated as a "bad example" in front of other RPFers by the RPF I/C Alex Meyer for spending so much time on the program and never getting graduated.

When Matteo Galbiati was reassigned to the RPF, after his twin Jill Graham died of cancer, Emilio became his new twin. Emilio had also had several twins before that and the one before Matteo was Mike Mallen. Mike got SP declared and thrown out of the Sea Org for committing "out tech." (It is always the fault of some SP when the tech doesn't work, must be why the SP lists are bigger than the IAS list). Matteo and Emilio were twins since around 2002 and they had their "graduation boxes" all ready, with all the documents and evidence sent to RTC for final approval. In other words they were on the "graduation line" and it was thought that they would be done "any day", for several months. They kept getting reject after reject and had to redo a lot of actions.

One of the final things that Emilio had to handle in order to "graduate" was to get a divorce from his wife who either blew or got thrown out many years ago. She got fed up and went back to Sweden, but due to no contact, being isolated in the RPF and no assistance from OSA in this legal matter, it turned into a nightmare for him. He spent hundreds of dollars in borrowed money trying to file a divorce, even putting ads in the newspaper trying to get a legal divorce so he could meet the requirements to graduate from the RPF. He went to the courthouse in LA and many times sent mail to Sweden that kept getting sent back. Apparently he only had her parents address and they ignored it all. When he tried to call long distance, spending a lot more money to no avail, he never got a hold of anybody. Hopefully he can get this sorted out now once he's free to do what he wants!!

When Emilio and Matteo didn't get it together after so many attempts, they were sent to ethics and eventually they both ended up on the RPFs RPF in early 2004. Then they both got fitness boarded out of the Sea Org. This really brought the morale down for many RPFers and it gave all a kind of a hopeless feeling that "it's impossible to ever graduate". Emilio, who had been on the program for so many years, was a trained OT Co-audit supervisor and had been through the hoops of every possible correction there is all the way up through OT V. And Matteo is an OT VII, Solo Nots case level auditor and a Flag trained Class IX and Solo Nots Case Supervisor! If they couldn't make it go right-- who could? The constant accusation thrown back in your face by the RPF I/C, Alex Meyer is always "you have out ethics and that's why you are not done yet" or "you have out tech and didn't handle you twin" or "you have missed withholds on your twin". These are the standard blame points and it's always your own fault or your twin's fault.

Emilio was illegally in the country with no visa or valid passport, therefore he could not get any pay for legal reasons. So he did not get paid even the $11/week that RPFers usually get from their own org. Per the RPF Flag Orders, the pay an RPFer is entitled to is 1/4 of full pay, which is $50 minus FICA, which comes out to $46 and some cents. (By the way, I have never figured out why all Sea Org members have to pay tax from their pay, if the "church" is tax exempt!!?? I thought this was handled by the "IRS win" in 1993?).

Emilio lived on the RPF for all these years with NO pay and a couple of times he was accused of stealing from other RPFers, but I think he was just trying to get by and survive. After 10 years in a virtual gulag (prison camp) with no pay and no ID or other documents, what kind of life or hope for the future could he have? He was working desperately to get through the program and talked many times how he wanted to "get back on post" in the Flag Beauraux. However, he was finally offloaded in May/June 2004. He had no legal papers to stay in the US and was sent back to Italy. One good thing was that his parents were getting old and needed assistance with taking care of their farm, so that's where he went. When he was escorted by security to LAX to be shipped out ofthe country, he had an expired passport and he was not even allowed to get on the plane! The reason being that he had to change his flight in Switzerland and the immigration authorities were concerned that he could have gone there illegally next. If it would have been a direct flight it wouldn't have been such a problem. I would say that Emilio being in the US for so many years on the RPF, illegally in the country, and not being paid ANYTHING for years of hard physical labor is just outright criminal.

Emilio is an incredible craftsman and had many years of experience working in the mill and in renovations; he knew how to build almost anything with wood. He could put up sheetrock, mud the walls, paint, lay carpets and get a perfect professional product that anybody would be happy with and would pay good exchange for. Here's another example of a hard worker, working an average of 8-10 hours a day for 10 years. He built furniture, renovated rooms and probably "saved" the church hundreds of thousands dollars or more with all his hard work and experience! What did he get in exchange? RPF auditing that he had to exchange with a twin, barely edible food and a crappy old military surplus bunk-bed in a room with 20-50 other guys who all had to share a bathroom! A half hour of "hygiene time" at the end of the day where you had to share the shower with over 30 other men at a time on the 6th floor showers of the "Big Blue". With over 100 guys trying to get through the shower stalls in this little time, there are other guys nagging, chanting and screaming "hurry up", "your time is UP","we have muster in 10 min" etc, giving you a total of 5 min. or less actually with the water. Mind you, RPFers are not allowed to take the elevator, so that is quite a few miles up and down the stairs for 10 years! I can not believe that OSA is allowing such things to go on right under their noses. Scientology is more worried about other things like maintaining their false image with celebrity endorsements and trying to silence the legion of critics rather than caring for the staff legally and with human decency and rights. Maybe they wouldn't have so many "enemies" to handle if they just stopped doing illegal, criminal things that they have to hide! The "church" of scientology is well known for using every means possible to demand their "rights" as a "religion." Well here is a novel idea for David Miscavige and geniuses he surrounds himself with at OSA and International Management, why not try acting like a religion? Just do the things a real religion would do, you know, care about people, help them, don't break the law, stop blackmailing people, stop ripping people off, don't force families to break up and/or abort their babies, don't force people to sell their homes and ruin their businesses and credit ratings just to get your stats up by Thursday at 2 pm. You say you have the only tech in the Universe to set people free of the "dwindling spiral". So use it! The way you guys are going you ARE the "dwindling spiral"!

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